A Spiritual Journey to Russia’s Valaam Monastery

This is another excellent documentary from RT on the spiritual awakening taking place in Russia.

Valaam Monastery (the name means “high mountain ground”) sits on an island in Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe and the 14th largest freshwater lake in the world. The island on which the monastery sits is also called Valaam, and is located in the northern part of the lake—north of the city of St. Petersburg and east of Russia’s border with Finland.

The Valaam monastery is one of the Russian Orthodox Church’s holiest and most isolated sites. You can go here and visit the monastery’s official website.

“The foundation of the Cloister is hidden in the mists of time, but the historical evidence we have allows us to state the the Monastery was founded at the dawn of Christianity in Russia,” the site states. Of special interest are audio files of the monastery all-male choir. Here is an especially beautiful one entitled The Troparion of the Nativity of Christ, recorded in 2004.

RT produced a somewhat similar documentary, entitled “Sacred Road,” which I posted several months ago. If you have not yet seen it, check it out here. It too is quite good. (Big screen video)